I just tried this myself and the cpu got up to 96F and was able to melt chocolate. However the cpu clearly states that it runs at 1.525V. I tried it again latter and it want working (I checked the connections). Do you think I fried the cpu?

I found the datasheet for a CPU that I'm looking at on eBay. It states "For clean on-chip power distribution, the Celeron processor on 0.13 micron process has 85 VCC (power) and 181 VSS (ground) input", does that mean I can solder the power wire to any one of these 85 VCC pins, and the ground wire to any one of the 181 VSS pins? Or will mine have a specific one that needs wiring to? Or maybe I'm not undeerstanding the statement correctly?

Also, when done would I be able to plug this into something such as an iPhone charger, I believe they are 5v?

PLEASE can someone tell me which are the ground and voltage pins on a pentium 1 processor? I found a datasheet through google but it went over my head. If someone understands that techie language, please help me!

Hello! I Have an old amd duron 800 cpu, and I want to make that, but I have a little problem...: can´t find the voltage and ground pins. I´ve searched the datasheet, but all i could was lots of names and numbers... it would be very nice if anyone could help me! :) Thanks! (and sorry for mi english) ;)

Excellent 'ible! If I may, I have a remark. The fact that I am somewhat clumsy, would certainly guarantee liquid spilled on the hot plate. So, a way to protect the under side of the cpu, would be crucial in my case.

How about a piece of pcb (from an old hard drive or mb) cut in the size of the box, with a square hole in the middle for the cpu? It could be sealed with epoxy or even hot glue since the pcb of the cpu does not get that hot ;)

Would it damage the CPU if I tried to solder the + and - leads from the USB cable to the CPU. I think this would make a more reliable connection, but I'm not sure if the heat would damage anything in the CPU. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

all semiconductors have a "thermal budget" temp and time at temp are the critical factors. In the step of the manufacturing process I oversee wafers are routinely subjected to +1000c for up to 6 hours(silicon melts at ~1200c) to diffuse dopents and passivate the surface charges. the die size inside the chip package is very small, connected to the pins by gold(melts @ 1064c) wires.

Soldering even a good chip should cause no damage, though running it as a heater will eat up its thermal budget faster and will make it useless for anything else eventually.

Nice idea, but you should have used all the pins and various voltages (to heat the entire thing, not just parts of it) and installed a current/temperature controller, possibly coupled with an active USB device - to get more current and to control the temp via a usb2serial interface or whatever.

Actually a USB port delivers 500 MilliAMPS, not mW. 500 milliamps at 5 volts is 2½ Watts. That's all a USB port can deliver. The CPU could however attempt to draw more than that. There's probably a current limiter built in to the port to prevent any damage though.